Breccia

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Breccia

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Montana Absarokas May 2007

Southwest Absaroka Range

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Breccia

Page Type: Album

Image Type(s): Scenery

Page By: Bob Sihler

Created/Edited: Feb 6, 2008 / Apr 10, 2011

Object ID: 378985

Hits: 2471

Page Score: 88.39% - 16 Votes

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The Worst Rock in the World?

Maybe. I'm sure there are plenty of candidates and personal "favorites."

Breccia is rock composed of other rock fragments that have been cemented together. Though it sometimes is stable, breccia is often hideously loose even though it is beautiful to look at, as it often forms spectacular cliffs and spires. The rock often looks like a knob-studded conglomerate seemingly made for climbing, but those knobs pull out easily and frequently, making climbing on them treacherous. Some hardened Wyoming mountaineers refer to the substance as "kitty litter." The name fits, as anyone who has climbed on it can surely attest.

Breccia can be igneous, sedimentary, tectonic, hydrothermal, or even impact-related (think meteorites) in origin. The breccia I have encountered in Wyoming is volcanic in origin, a hardened ash.

Breccia is abundant in the Southern Absarokas of Wyoming, and this album collects many breccia images from that range, though I have found a few from other areas and attached them. However, please feel free to add any breccia pictures you have from other mountain ranges, as Northwestern Wyoming is hardly the only place breccia is found.

Images

Breccia Cliffs of Mount Sublette, Wyoming

Dove from west

Greybull Pass

Emergence

Breccia Tower on Two Ocean Mountain

Two Ocean Mountain-- Summit Block

First Obstacle on the Summit Ridge

Breccia Peak-- Summit View

Breccia "Mushroom"

Chalkstone Dome

The Brittle Breccia of Sublette Peak

Breccia/Tuff Green-> Red

Absaroka Breccia

Discovery Wall

Breccia Peak

[ View Gallery - 16 More Images ]

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Viewing: 1-6 of 6

lisae

Nice album!

Voted 10/10

Most of the rock at the Pinnacles National Monument is breccia. I have had the joy of grabbing a likely looking hold only to feel it move. You can tell a Pinnacles climber because they have developed the habit of tapping holds, for feet and hands.

I'll post some climbing picture from the Pinnacles.

Posted Feb 8, 2008 11:57 pm


	Bob Sihler	Re: Nice album!
	Hasn't voted	Thank you, Lisa, and for adding the climbing shots, too.
		Posted Feb 9, 2008 3:32 pm

MoapaPk

tuff luck

Voted 10/10

The terms are not precise, but often volcanic rock fragments cemented by ash goes by "non-welded tuff".

These towers are made of this stuff:
Dove
near Manganese
more near Mn Mt

...and this one not on SP:
Castle NV server is busy right now...

EDIT: I added 'em.

Posted Feb 21, 2008 7:10 pm


	Bob Sihler	Re: tuff luck
	Hasn't voted	Thanks for the links. I may attach those pictures to the album, especially the "action" ones. Non-welded: Yes, that says it quite well!
		Posted Feb 24, 2008 8:10 pm


	MoapaPk	Re: tuff luck
	Voted 10/10	I added those pics. Some of the tectonic breccias around here -- generated when great sheets of limestone slid over other limestones or sandstones -- are very hard (tough, not tuff!).
		Posted Feb 25, 2008 3:46 pm


	Bob Sihler	Re: tuff luck
	Hasn't voted	Maybe that tuff isn't so tough because it is tough (groan). Thanks for adding the pictures; now I'll have to find something else to do at work today.
		Posted Feb 26, 2008 8:24 am

Viewing: 1-6 of 6